Responding
to the Right-wing without Being an Expert or a VictimProfessor’s
pamphlet series challenges grassroots activists

Kansas City, MO, December 30, 2002. “It’s
time for new strategies. Everybody remembers the anti-gay
soundbites of the right wing. Who remembers what we
say even though we’ve been responding to the same
old arguments for decades?”

That’s the basis for the first three of a series
of pamphlets written by Dr. Robert N. Minor. In “The
Fairness Project Series” he intends to change
the dynamic of pro-LGBT arguing for every-day people.

“Even if we don’t like it, we know: ‘It’s
Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.’ But what do
we remember of our own responses where we weigh the
possibilities, talk to ourselves in conferences, let
the right wing dominate the conversation and set the
language, and respond over and over to the same criticisms
till we’re exhausted?”

“They have set the agenda. And we’re often
stuck. We need practical, every-day, tips on how to
get beyond their agenda without having to worry about
being experts,” Minor says.

In 2001, Minor, a Professor of Religious Studies at
the University of Kansas, authored the book Scared Straight:
Why It’s So Hard to Accept Gay People and Why
It’s So Hard to Be Human (St. Louis: HumanityWorks!).
Within a month it was named “Book of the Week”
by the premier men’s issues website: www.Menstuff.org.
In 2002 it was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award
and an Independent Publisher Book Award.

His first three pamphlets published in late 2002 are
meant to be practical, how-to-do-it guides that don’t
begin with a stance he calls “the victim role.”

“We don’t begun with our own agenda. We
respond as if we have something to apologize for. We
don’t realize that we’re the healthy ones
in this debate. So, we need a consistent, simple approach
that will be remembered. And one that won’t get
caught up in their issues. We need to stop allowing
them to use religion, psychology, and everything else
to cover up their prejudices. And we need to quit arguing
the same things again and again.”

So, the first pamphlet, “When You’re Having
a Religious Argument,” begins with asking what
it is about religion that “hooks us” even
if we are not religious. “If we reject religion,
our anger at religion is still a sign we’re hooked,”
Minor points out.

Minor then outlines issues that need recognition by
us as we respond and then gives seven practical suggestions
to “get down to the real issues beneath religious
arguments.”

The second pamphlet arises out of the workshops for
LGBT activists Minor has conducted for the last three
years at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s
“Creating Change Conference.” Entitled,
“Burnout, Blowout, and Breaking Up: Navigating
the Hazards of Activist Leadership,” Minor sets
forth principles and helpful tips to help make LGBT
leadership a healthy, growing experience for the leaders.
“In progressive activism, the leadership principles
developed for business and other institutions that are
meant to maintain the status quo, won’t work.
But they will cause burnout and bitterness.”

The third pamphlet is meant to change and simplify
our responses to the claims of the ex-gay movement.
“Case Closed! Responding to Psychological Arguments
Against Gay People” gives seven practical tips
for responding to the use of psychology to cover prejudices.
“Don’t get caught up in arguing psychology,”
Minor recommends, “but do understand the unanimous,
quarter-of-a-century-old, gay-positive conclusions of
the major psychological organizations as well as the
psychology of the anti-gay arguments you face.”

The 8-page colorful pamphlets, as well as a press kit
and other information on Dr. Minor, his seminars and
writings, are available from the Fairness Project at
www.fairnessproject.org. For review copies, email fairnessproject@mindspring.com
or fax: 816-931-1420. You may contact Dr. Minor directly
at rminor@ku.edu.